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Thursday, April 27, 2017

New PTA Haim Video "Right Now!"

A new "slow rolling" live video from Haim has been released, shot by Paul Thomas Anderson. Pitchfork released a review of the track and had this to say:

“Right Now,” the first track from Haim’s upcoming album, Something to Tell You, is strictly for the heads. A live studio recording filmed in slow-rolling precision by Paul Thomas Anderson, the song is hardcore Haim, with its bashing drums, punk feedback, and pleading vocals. They sound tough as hell. “Gave you my love, you gave me nothing/Said what I gave wasn’t enough,” Danielle Haim spits out with ample venom. It builds from there, piece by piece, until her jerk of a lover wants her to come back, “right now.”

No way, dude! This is what Haim does best, create a small universe in a song, then soundtrack it with ample fire. Admittedly, it’s not a perfect take—Danielle sometimes sounds rushed, sometimes the levels are wonky—but that’s not really the point. It’s Haim at their most skeletal, giving you a taste, and this raw sound delivers their signature heebie-jeebies just fine!

The fact that the video was released the day after the death of Jonathan Demme in my opinion is an incredible case of fate with a strong symbolic value (almost worthy of the "Magnolia" prologue): Anderson has always been an unconditional admirer of the great director who disappeared two days ago and his choice to make music videos I think was influenced by Demme's passion for filming live music. Demme once said: "I felt from time to time that shooting live music is the most purely cinematic thing you can do. Ideally, the cinema is becoming one with music. There is little artifice involved. I loved it".

Upon hearing the passing of Demme i immediately consumed as much of his work in a short amount of time. One such viewing was Demme's performance video for New Order's "The Perfect Kiss" only to find the next day this video releasing! Talk about serendipitous! If PTA isn't the heir to Jonathan Demme than i don't know who is.